Five Madoff employees guilty of fraud

Published March 25. 2014 12:01AM

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press

New York — Five former employees of imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff were convicted Monday at the end of a six-month trial that portrayed them as telling an elaborate web of lies to hide a fraud that enriched them and cheated investors out of billions of dollars.

The trial - one of the longest in the storied history of Manhattan federal court - was the first to result from the massive fraud revealed in December 2008 when Madoff ran out of money and was arrested. He pleaded guilty and is serving a 150-year prison sentence.

The case focused on five people who prosecutors said helped him carry out the fraud.

Each was convicted of conspiracy to defraud clients, securities fraud, falsifying the books and records of a broker dealer. Prosecutors obtained convictions on all 33 charges, though only one defendant was charged in some counts.

Prosecutors unveiled hundreds of exhibits and showcased dozens of witnesses to try to prove charges against Annette Bongiorno, Madoff's longtime secretary; Daniel Bonventre, his director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and Jerome O'Hara and George Perez, both computer programmers.

The defendants largely took the verdict in stride except for Crupi, who looked shocked when the first guilty verdict was read and later shook her head. Bongiorno wrote notes on paper during the reading.

"These convictions, along with the prior guilty pleas of nine other defendants, demonstrate what we have believed from the earliest stages of the investigation: this largest-ever Ponzi scheme could not have been the work of one person," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said. "These defendants each played an important role in carrying out the charade, propping it up, and concealing it from regulators, auditors, taxing authorities, lenders, and investors."

Bongiorno and Bonventre testified for days in their own defense. They insisted they were victims of Madoff's as well, losing millions of dollars they had invested with him because they believed in and trusted him.

Bongiorno, 65, told the jury she once asked how the firm was "making money when everyone else was losing money." She said Madoff told him they could make money in a down market by shorting stocks. Bongiorno said she believed him.

Clients lost nearly $20 billion. A court-appointed trustee has recovered much of the money by forcing those customers who received big payouts from Madoff to return the funds. When the fraud was revealed, Madoff admitted that the nearly $68 billion he claimed existed in accounts was actually only a few hundred million dollars.

The centerpiece of the prosecution's case was Frank DiPascali, Madoff's former finance chief, and five other insiders who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate.

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